Food Allergy Life Overnight School Travels

If I could abolish pantyhose and overnight school trips I would. These are two things I would have liked to live without, until recently. Those stretchy pieces of tyrannical net still need to go, but after experiencing a week-long trip to Washington DC, my attitude has changed as lessons were learned. Other than being exhausted beyond words as I learned I really am 53 years old, there were a few gems worth exploring in our food allergy world.
The Scenario: A week-long trip to our Nation’s Capital with my daughter’s middle school, led by two incredibly patient teachers and hosted by World Strides-a professional tour operator. I attended not as a chaperone, but basically as a big kid. I wanted to enjoy a special trip with her. Our journey began with a 3:00am alarm clock greeting on Monday and ended arriving back to our beloved Reno on Friday night at 8:00pm. We departed our DC hotel anywhere between 6:30am to 7:30am daily, returning somewhere between 9:00-10:00pm after an entire day of sightseeing, learning and walking miles and miles!
Lessons Learned…

• World Strides is not able to manage students with life-threatening food allergies to the level that many of us require since they are not at each meal advocating for food allergies. I appreciated their upfront clarity regarding their limitations. My family had something to work with.
• The teacher chaperones provided me with the itinerary ahead of time so I could call ahead to restaurants and airports to determine if there were appropriate options for my daughter.
• Having a supportive teacher was key, as he did not bat an eye as I made other arrangements for food.
• Not only did I pack a suitcase full of food, each day my daughter carried backup food in case there were last-minute changes in planned meals. When you are on a tight tour schedule there is little to no time to find a safe restaurant close by.  Often, our meals only lasted thirty minutes since we walked off the bus to prepared meals waiting for us!
• It helped to pack an insulated cooling lunch bag and hard containers so we could keep perishable foods at safe temperatures until eaten.
• Several restaurants were not able to work with my daughter’s tree nut allergy and thankfully, since we called ahead, we were able to bring food other food along. One day a food allergy mom, who lived close to our destination, gave me a ride to a local shop to buy safe food for lunch. Another day, our breakfast destination made my daughter lunch that we packed on ice in my insulated bag.
• Planning was our best friend as it removed stress and kept the focus on the trip.
• We really did not worry about the other students eating allergens either since they were older, self managed and worked to not eat allergens next to my daughter on the airplane. She said that would make her nervous and her friends were happy to help her out.
• Even though I am not a fan of planned tours, the planned tour made meals sooo much easier than trying to find food daily.

The Result: A great trip was enjoyed by all and I did eventually learn that there were other tour operators who do address food allergies. I do not believe my daughter at her age (12) and level of maturity would have been able to manage her allergens. BUT, my son was eventually ready by high school to tackle overnight trips with good planning. The bottom line for my family was that being prepared and being able to carry out that plan is what made the trip work. The other non-allergic kids on the trip enjoyed my big bag ‘o snacks as well. As along as the food was tasty, they were happy. As long as we didn’t have to worry about safe foods, I was happy.